My problem with that right arm and shoulder was:
1. Auto accident 1973; screw driven from what was left of the elbow to the wrist while the rest of the assembly was held in place with wires.
2. Everything in the arm worked rather smoothly with the exception that I couldn’t oscillate my wrist so my writing suffered.
3. A deep melanoma was discovered in that right shoulder and aggressive surgery was done in order to get all the cancer. Unfortunately in so doing the surgeon nicked my rotator cuff.
4. Surgery was ordered and completed in an attempt to repair the cuff. It failed.
5. A second surgery was ordered and completed and it too failed.
6. Finally a professor at the University of Florida took an interest and performed a total shoulder replacement ‘in reverse’ and that was three years ago and no problems that I can’t live with.
The medical lesson here is that when the patient is over sixty, attempting to repair a rotator cuff is like trying to join two wet ends of a piece of toilet paper....it won’t work.
Shoulder replacement is the answer.
Never heard of total replacement for shoulder.
Guess I’ll get my Phd on that and see if that might be an option
Had my right shoulder worked on...I couldn’t raise my right hand past my diaphragm. After the MRI, my surgeon told me that all the ends of the muscles had been pulled from their
insertion points in the bone.
Three hours of surgery, three months of a sling with absolutely no movement, six months of PT and I was good to go. He told me that there was no going back and trying to fix things if it went wrong. I have full range of motion, no pain at all, and my strength is back.
That was when I was 64.
I had both done about six months apart. The first went like clockwork (it was done to repair damage from a recent tear). The second took over six hours, the surgeon said it was like trying to nail together to rotten boards. It had started as a very small tear which advanced a bit with each time I overloaded the right shoulder. By the time I sought repairs over twenty years had passed. From your "two TP ends" description I'd venture a guess that you were injured long before you sought surgical repairs.
It's been my experience that the initial injury, the wait until you decide on surgery, and the surgery itself is not all that painful. It's more of an inconvenience, closing a car door, retrieving a 1/2 gallon of milk from the fridge, and depending on which shoulder is torn and whether you are Rt or Lt handed, applying TP as it was intended to be used can become rather problematic (The experience will demonstrate just who your friends are!)
Regards,
GtG
PS I'm in my 70's had the repairs done some 35 years ago and everything is holding up just fine.